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The Legacy of Play School
The Legacy of Play School is a blog post from the CBeebies website. Here is a House, these are its doors. Well it's nearly the bank holiday and this April marks the 50th anniversary of the much-loved Play School. With its songs and rhymes, the venerable children's show premiered on April 21, 1964 as the first full show to air on BBC Two after the channel was released from a power cut on its launch night. It had already been recorded a week earlier with Virginia Stride and Gordon Rollings. "The show had pets on the show including Katoo the Cockatoo, who bit the Presenters' fingers. They were all cared for by Wendy Duggan." says former producer Alison Stewart. Training Ground Audiences grew to love regular features, including toys such as Humpty, Jemima, Big Ted, Little Ted, and Hamble, a clock which told the date and time, and three windows -- round, square, and arch which introduced real segments. There was also the films of everyday life and cartoon sequences. Embedding itself in the schedules for another 24 years, Play School was devised by Joy Whitby and launched the careers of Presenters such as Brian Cant and Floella Benjamin, who became firm favourites among viewers. The show was eventually complemented by weekend morning entertainment show PlayAway ''and both proved to be a training ground where on and off-air talent cut their teeth. "It was kinda like the same people who created the show. More? Jeremy Irons, Tony Robinson, and Anita Dobson got their start on ''PlayAway," explains Stweart. "We really did have to pull together - you didn't get experienced people on the show because it was one of those bread-and-butter programmes." The 25-minute episodes were made as live, because there wasn't enough time to edit. "People would be running around, setting up props and moving the piano, and things would go wrong. Even though it wasn't going out live, you really didn't want to stop, so that was a good challenge and skill to learn." One-Child Policy Stewart has since risen through the ranks to oversee production and acquisitions for CBeebies, and says Play School nurtured a family tree of people who "carried the torch, in terms of pre-school production". Today's crop of CBeebies shows also borrows many of the tools used in Play School, one of which is the presentation and more personal on-air style. For example: The Windows were revived on a show called Tikkabilla. New presenters are always trained to forget about the size of their audience, and to talk as if they're just chatting to one child. "That whole idea stops them being big and over-the-top and children really respond to it," explains Stewart. Comedians would sometimes parody the presenting style in sketches, by wearing dungarees and waving to camera. "I suppose it was flattery in a way but wasn't meant for them," Stewart says. Current hosts are also awe-struck at working with their presenting heroes - CBeebies megastar Justin Fletcher (aka Mr. Tumble) often credits Brian Cant as his inspiration. Two of the Presenters founded a company called Tell-Tale Productions, which created the Tweenies, and presenter Brian Jameson became the producer of Balamory and'' Woolly and Tig''. When a few presenters appeared in last year's CBeebies Christmas pantomime, A CBeebies Christmas Carol, many people remembered them from their childhood. Play School ''also streamed international success when the programme was adapted in New Zealand and Australia, and Stewart says the show's DNA has also spread to pre-school channel CBeebies, which caters for the BBC's youngest viewers. "We don't talk down to kids and we don't assume they know. You just find presenters who are really, really good communicators, who would be brilliant with children if they just came and sat down in front of them." But she acknowledges that technology is changing how children interact with content, and so now CBeebies is producing some online-first output. "You can see how preschoolers are using touchscreen and tablets - they all love the online offering but it's still, nearly always, the characters and stories that they first see on television that takes them to those other areas. "We'll have different platforms to deliver for but it will always be about finding the best things that preschool children want to engage with." Stewaert is very proud of her link with ''Play School and the show's legacy. "It was a quick turnaround and the budgets were very, very tiny but that didn't stop you being creative with it. "You'd laugh yourself stupid sometimes because it was so intense. "My contemporary trainee directors are still some of my best friends so it was that sort of environment, where you went in there in your early twenties and you made friends that lasted a lifetime. I loved it, I loved working on that show." Category:2014 Category:CBeebies Grown-Ups